In an attempt to learn everything there is to know about our Game of the Month, Cities: Skylines [official site], I spoke to Colossal Order's CEO Mariina Hallikainen until we both ran out of words. We talked about the game's extraordinary success and what it means for the future of the 13-person company, the importance of mods, the fate of Cities in Motion, and the influence of dear departed Maxis. Along the way, there are discussions about simulations as educational tools, Colossal Order's next project, and the importance of a good working environment and the avoidance of crunch.
We try to put effort into things that people will, hopefully, still find interesting. I don't think the community takes away from what we can do - we have lots of room for improvement and we can take ideas from mods. We can implement things in different ways, improving and polishing, and making more solid implementation. That's one of the great things.
cities in motion mods
Hallikainen: Yeah. You're completely on point there. We have been working on Cities in Motion and Skylines for years, and for the artists they've basically been modelling cities. This is something I feel very strongly about, that we should bring fresh and new things to our employees.
RPS: It's interesting looking at youtube videos and the Skylines subreddit. People are so proud of the things they build. In some ways it taps into that Minecraft creative buzz, showing off what you've built. There are people who want to recreate real world cities, people who want to make really efficient cities and they'll show you how to make a perfect road system. My cities tend to look like shit but I'm trying t make something that's efficient and attractive. Some people are just engineers with it though.
Hallikainen: Exactly. The point is that we have to make choices, balancing the game to suit most of the players. It's really cool to see that there is actually a mod that makes it so that if a worker doesn't reach his destination, it will have negative consequences. These are the things that I think widen the audience - if they're not exactly happy with what they have in the game, they can change it. A citybuilder is for a mass audience, not just for hardcore players, but now those players can create their own challenges through the mods.
RPS: Do you think there's an educational quality to the game? The original Sim City helped me to understand how cities worked, even if in a very basic and abstract way. Is it a game that you want very young people to be able to pick up and play?
I agree with this article pretty much. In some cities in some time periods youre definitely forced to build a metro in specific places, because the surface traffic is an issue you just cant get past (meaning no matter how high transit ridership is, theres still traffic, and your transit vehicles only make it worse). Having transit-specific lanes (even if it were expensive) would be a huge benefit to the game. uI also wish there was a way to have streetcars have underground segments instead of having to build a metro. I think the different walksheds for different modes is essentially correct. I think bus and streetcar are the same (streetcar may be slightly larger, I cant remember, but metro is definitely nearly double the radius of both). But yeah, as you said, the game is all about feeding the metro. Every time I start a new scenario I just borrow as much money as possible to build a metro, which is pretty much the only way to play the game to win.
Since 1991 I've been a consulting transit planner, helping to design transit networks and policies for a huge range of communities. My goal here is to start conversations about how transit works, and how we can use it to create better cities and towns. Read more.
Bus routes should be used to achieve full local coverage of houses and minor employers, especially on the edge of cities. They should not be used to connect popular destinations together, and should not be used in the most densely built-up areas of cities. Trams should not be relied upon for cross-city travel.
Beginner Tip: Although metro-only routes can be profitable, especially if they link popular destinations in densely built-up cities, a more limited network that promotes interchange onto metro is generally even more profitable.
This is where Skylines starts to move away from other games with a thriving modding scene; if you look at Skyrim, for example, which has an incredibly popular suite of mods available for it, Bethesda are somewhat hamstrung when it comes to developing with them in mind, as they have to at least make gestures towards console parity.
For Cities: Skylines mods and assets can be stored in user data, game installation directory and Steam Workshop downloads directory. If you want to install mods manually, we recommend the first location since it should not be affected if you decide to temporarily uninstall the game or move it to another library.
"Fan of GTA V? Here's the completely built region of South San Andreas including the cities of Los Santos, Palomino, and Sandy Shores," modder Steam user grockefeller says in the item's description. "Ever wanted to challenge and continue the vibrant metropolis of Rockstar Games? Now you could! You'll have to deal with multiple problem like employment, ecology, waste disposal, and water."
The mod will let you oversee the city and watch it go through its cycles, but unfortunately you'll need a couple of mods to make it work. Most importantly, you'll need unlimted money, as Los Santos is in quite a bit of debt and operates at a deficit.
What I realized, first of all, is that the problem does NOT affect all my scenarios/saves. I loadedan old 2015 save from one of the early maps I played in Cities Skylines, and this one, despite having asupposedly more complex layout and a larger population than most other scenarios, it was runningsmoothly. Blistering fast, and without any excessive system usage. This was also a map created WITHOUT any mods.
This led me to two intermediate conclusions - this is most likely connected to the use ofthird-party mods, and my system is not starved or maxed out resource-wise. I have sufficient availableprocessor and graphics bandwidth, and I should not focus any effort there.
The third conclusion is - yes, the more you play, the bigger and more complex your city becomes, themore resources you use. But, this is a linear effect, and it does not explain intermittent performance lags that do not correlate to usage (it actuallygoes down) or the sudden nature of when it manifests. So the focus is on the mods.
The technical explanation that I have - without really knowing the details of the game's engine andarchitecture is as follows: the mods (any which, but in my case the tile unlock) introduce memory leaksthat force the game engine to perform too many computations, bringing the game's execution to a crawl.This does not go away on its own. When you load a pristine map (that has no 25-tile logic it in), someof the memory allocations are cleared, and on next run of the new game, the engine works well.
Well, you have nothing to lose, so it's worth trying to see if this correlates to your performancelags. There's no damage or harm, you can save games with different names, and toggle the mods on/off asyou see fit. When I need more areas, I would toggle the All Areas purchaseable on, buy, save, exit,then disable the mod, load the game again, save again, load the old one, and then the new one for thethird time, and have a fast and lag-free experience. And BTW, this has NOTHING to do with Meltdown patches. The problem occurred way waybefore.
If you hate articles like this, I dig you. But then, I am forced to work with a closed system, and Iam confident this little guide is not just empty nonsense. It is based on careful observation, itcovers two independent systems, it's repeatable, and there's a very clear cause-effect link. Peoplehave always claimed that mods cause all sorts of issues and lags with the game, and I have indeedproven that. This does not mean you should not use them, but be aware of weird game logic traps.
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The game also features a robust transportation system based on Colossal Order's previous Cities in Motion, allowing the player to plan out effective public transportation for the city in order to reduce traffic congestion and generate transit revenue.[1] Roads can be built straight or free-form, and the grid used for zoning adapts to the shape of the adjacent roads; cities need not follow a square grid plan. Roads of varying widths (up to major freeways) accommodate different traffic volumes, and variant road types (for example, avenues lined with trees or highways with sound barriers) offer reduced noise pollution or increased property values in the surrounding area at an increased cost to the player.[5] The road system can be augmented with various forms of public transportation such as buses, taxis, trams, trains, ferries, and metro systems.
Modding, via the addition of user-generated content such as buildings or vehicles, is supported in Cities: Skylines through the Steam Workshop. The creation of an active content-generating community was stated as an explicit design goal.[2][6] The game includes several pre-made terrains to build on, and also includes a map editor to allow users to create their own maps, including the use of real-world geographic features. Mods are also available to affect core gameplay elements; pre-packaged mods include the ability to bypass the aforementioned population tier unlock system, unlimited funds, and a higher difficulty setting. 2ff7e9595c
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